Archives for August, 2009

I’m the department Luddite. I use Powerpoint less often than any of my colleagues, and I’m the person who argues that rooms in a new building need to be designed to allow natural light and views when desired (as well as be able to be darkened adequately). But I’m also the person in my department…

I’ve recently submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation, and it’s got me thinking about how I find ideas for research. The proposal was for an instrument to enable research*, and that meant that, for the first time in years**, I had to write something that could convince other people that my research is…

Geoscientists: we (Anne Jefferson, Pat Campbell, Suzanne Franks, and me) are looking for participants in a survey about the ways in which women geoscientists use blogs (both as readers and as writers). Here’s the official request: Over the past several years, the geoscience blogosphere has blossomed so much that this fall, the Geological Society of…

There was a mountain lion in the courtyard of a local elementary school playground today. A mountain lion. At the elementary school. A neighbor called the police, who called the Department of Wildlife, who shot the mountain lion. A young male, about 75 pounds, probably recently headed out on its own. Apparently that’s the age…